How much detail do you put into writing your character's background?

[perezathena312]

Are you the type to write every single detail of your character, down to their birth chart? Or are you more of a go-with-the-flow kind of writer who develops details as the novel progress?

This subject just crossed my mind recently since I realized I never gave my OCs basic information besides their names, ages, and addresses. Heck, I keep on forgetting to give them a birth date!

[katiesilverwings]

I tend to find out as I go along. My characters seem determined to keep me on a strict need-to-know basis... so I'll be in the middle of a story and suddenly, out of nowhere, I learn something new about their background. (Or their friends/family. I've got one that seems to be related to everyone...)

But I like it that way. I'd rather focus on the stories my characters want to tell rather than having an entire wikipedia of character profiles and nothing actually in story format... and it's kind of freeing to be able to learn about them as I go along rather than try to keep track of a ton of information about them that might never show up on the page.

[yumeryuu]

I let it grow organically

[TheBlacKat333]

I usually figure out who they were raised by, how they were raised, and how their childhood was like. Other than that, not much, not even birthdays.(I should really figure out their birthdays)

[Leyelle]

I had a lot of information on my leads in "Hushabye Prince" before it started inasmuch as it was relevant to their behavior. Birthdays and such I decided as I need them, because they don't affect my leads personalities, but things like favorite foods, hobbies, bad habits, and at least basic details on their family backgrounds I do.

I also know a lot about their worst fears, wants and desires and things like that before I started.

With "Damsel in the Red Dress" because I wrote it for the True Love On Tapas competition I only learned about a month from the deadline I didn't plan much in advance. That said, I did still put a lot of details into their backgrounds. I know their hobbies, what their childhoods were like, relationship statuses in the past (my male lead has never dated anyone, but no, it's not because he's a sad unpopular boy)

I love writing backstories, so even if I never get to share them, I usually write them with a pretty decent amount of detail. I could tell you how my female lead in "Hushabye Prince" parents met, how her father lost his hearing, how her mother came to the United States. Etc. but there probably won't be space for it in the story lol.

[2DLenzy]

I go with the flow and develop my characters in the present moments until there's a need to explain/reveal something from their backgrounds (often from epiphanies). For example, I never looked into birth charts(astrology) for my chicken char, but recently on a whim I learned that the month I picked lines up with his personality almost perfectly. Fun coincidences like these kinda motivate me to build my chars up a little more. Right now, I'm fleshing out my human MC's history, just the key events -not shown in the comic yet but we'll get there, eventually...

I actually struggle with some details (hobbies, habits, etc), but I'll figure that out when I need to. Everything's mostly event-driven right now.

Edit: I just became aware of a crucial detail that I've forgotten to draw on my main MC (hint, he's married) This was accidental on my part, never drew him a ring, but now I see potential for an interesting plot development, hehehehe.

[BoomerZ]

Everything about my comics is scripted. I have a specific story to tell so I do as much work as needed to tell that story. But I only do as much as needed to tell the story. Everything else is a waste of time. I know their personalities and how they will react to situations, mainly as they react to tell the story. No one has birthdays, I have no idea what color they like, or any other detail that doesn't show up in the story. Truthfully, I don't really care about their ages really. They are in their mid twenties. That is as detailed as that has to be. .

[lignorice]

I did not think much at first. They act, I tell their story. But once they made appearance, I have a vague guidelines inside my head as the story develops so they won't be out of their character in the later part.

[justanothernerdling]

My book is entirely character driven so I could tell you basically anything about them you could ask. However, what I share in the story is minimal/only shows up on a need-to-know basis.